By RACHEL LANE

D.C. Correspondent

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The 2018 farm bill remains the primary focus of U.S. agriculture groups as 2018 comes to a close.

The bill was researched for two years, with the House and Senate agriculture committees holding dozens of meetings to learn what the ag-centric bill needs to provide. The 2014 farm bill was researched and organized when the farm economy was doing well, but commodity prices started to fall in 2014 and have not picked up since then.

The deadline to pass the 2018 farm bill was the end of September, but the House and Senate versions are still being reconciled. Each chamber passed a version of the bill in the summer; there were many differences, from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) work requirement in the House bill, to the funding for a Foot-and-Mouth Disease vaccine bank.

In January 2019, the Republican-controlled House will go to Democrats. No one is sure if this will make the Republicans more stubborn about including the work provisions in the SNAP program, or more willing to negotiate.

“We’re keeping our fingers crossed that that’ll get done. That’s at the top of the priority list,” said Paul Schlegel, managing director of Public Policy and Economics at the American Farm Bureau Federation.

He said all parties involved in passing the farm bill seem willing to get the bill done and passed in 2018. He thinks they will manage to pass it before the winter break in December.

A bill introduced in the House in July, if passed, would allow livestock farmers get year-round H-2A visa workers. A year-long version of the bill has been a request by farmers for years, Schlegel said. Dairy farmers have requested a three-year visa program, but that is not going to happen any time soon, he added.

The program would still require farm workers to return home at the end of their visa, but a creative farmer would be able to schedule the workers so there were new people starting often enough that the farm is always fully staffed.

If passed, the bill would create the H-2C work visa program. Farmers would be required to post job openings with their state’s workforce agency for 30 days.

Schlegel said he hopes the bill is passed, but is less confident about it than about the farm bill.

House Resolution 6417 would also require farmers participating in the program to e-Verify employees under section 403(a) of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996. The e-Verification program requires that no company employ illegal immigrants, or continue to employee illegal immigrants once their status is known.

The Western Growers Assoc. opposes the measure because it says the provision would require employers to verify the legal status of their workers and potentially slow down the process of finding enough employees.

Meghan Cline, press secretary for the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, said the farm bill will likely take the rest of the year.

Schlegel said there are a few regulatory issues he is watching, as well. The Department of Labor has a change in the regulations that would remove the requirement for advertising for workers in a Sunday newspaper. Instead, the regulation would state that advertisements needed to be placed. Farmers may be able to save money by posting the jobs online rather than in the paper.